Gold Member

All you have to do is type 'income disparity' into Google and the true winners ,The Masters of The Universe, will be revealed. There lives couldn't be more different than the poor masses that keep voting rich.

According to recent studies, the top one percent &#8212; the wealthiest among us &#8212; are getting richer and richer. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OCED) has found the United States to be the most unequal society of all industrialized nations. The U.S. ranks last among OECD nations in terms of income equality, yet in 1993 the poorest 10% of the U.S. population was still wealthier than two-thirds of the rest of the world.

In its recent report "The State of Working America 2002-03," the Economic Policy Institute estimated that the bottom 80 percent of American households control only about 17 percent of the nation's wealth. Meanwhile, wages, benefits, and working conditions for workers at the bottom continue to decrease. Worldwide, the story is the same. A 2002 study by the World Bank found inequality growing not only between nations, but within nations.

Sometimes it's so obvious. When the Bush Administration decided to let Lehman Brothers fail, the poor and middle class had no idea who the fuck they were. But the rich certainly did and promptly took their billions out and cut the market in half taking the middle classes puny 401k's with it.

I believe in paying a fair share of taxes but taking all the wealth of the wealthy will not raise society to a higher standard of living. The money will all be spent, and nobody will be left to bleed. The government has spent trillions, and people are still living in poverty. Opportunities should be given for education and job training. If you choose not to take advantage of them, tough shit. You can't be a pimp and a player if you want to fly.
Before you start your psycho blabbing, if not for wealthy benefactors, we'd not have museums, scholarships, and paid rides through college like Obama had. Everybody should pay a fair share but nobody should be bled to death.

Gold Member

Kind of like the poor and middle class was last year when oil was $149 a barrel vs $36 last winter. You are just the kind of person the rich love. The pennies they piss on the poor who are supposed to be happy you get it.

And please tell me who is bleeding to death? All the data says the same thing 'the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer'. Sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity won't change the fact the peasants are going to storm the castle one day. If there is one thing history shows us is that vast concentrations of wealth NEVER last. If the rich won't share then one day it will be taken.

....as power (and money) remains privately concentrated, everybody, everybody, has to be committed to one overriding goal: and thats to make sure that the rich folk are happy -- because unless they are, nobody else is going to get anything. So if youre a homeless person sleeping in the streets of Manhattan, lets say, your first concern must be that the guys in the mansions are happy -- because if theyre happy, then theyll invest, and the economy will work, and things will function, and then maybe something will trickle down to you somewhere along the line. But if theyre not happy, everythings going to grind to a halt, and youre not even going to get anything trickling down. ​

When you take away an individuals need to be responsible for themselves, they become free to do as they please and expect the working masses to take care of them. I get disgusted with people who are eligible for free education right in their own town, and won't take advantage of it. In fact, some of them only live 2 blocks from the college. You can be a pimp and player all you want to be but don't blame someone else for your situation.
Go ahead Sargon, seize all the wealth. There will be no money to invest to create jobs. We will become a nation of scarcity and want like the former Soviet Union. The only people who will have anything are those high in the government.

Gold Member

When the argument falls apart time to roll out the socialist/communist flag. Never fails. But what is failing is capitalism fairly distributing the wealth.

The lie of personal responsibility

Personal responsibility is the demand by the wealthy that the poor sacrifice basic necessities, feel sinful for minimal pleasures, and accept tragedy as the logical and deserved outcome of the way they must live their lives.

It is the rallying cry of billionaire executives against life-long workers whose retirements will be short and penniless. Personal responsibility is the shrug of corporations in response to consumer disease, injury, and death due to unsafe products.

It is spit upon the graves of victims of faulty levees, dangerous work environments, and official nonresponsiveness. The personal responsibility of the 21st century is 19th century Social Darwinism reincarnated.

No small concern when this dismembering of New Deal era reforms and ideals bleeds over into liberal activism, however well-intentioned may the call for personal responsibility be.
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Gold Member

What the fuck is "fairly distributing the wealth?" That is not capitalism. Capitalism distributes wealth based on talent and effort and innovation.

You are hilarious. Communism is an abject failure and socialism is doomed for the scrap heap.

Click to expand...

If you believe that then I have some land in New Orleans to sell you. Capitalism is failing right before your very eyes. Capitalism has a dark side you conservatives refuse to look at even as it empties your pockets, a dark side of exclusion and privilege. The rational market is a myth. CEO compensation is completely delinked from performance. Now THAT is the real talent that has happened in the last 20 years. Wreck the company and STILL get rich.

All this is window dressing. Humanity is headed for the scrap heap with capitalism. You think this level of consumption can continue? Can the world support 5 billion people wanting to live like Western Europeans and Americans? Hell no.

Gold Member

California has a State income tax that tops out at a little over 9% in FY2006-2007 58 billion dollars was collected from income taxes.

If only 144,000 Californians paid HALF that amount.... and that was based upon a 9% tax rate... then those 144,000 taxpayers each paid, on average, $200,388 on a taxable income of no less than 2 million 237 thousand 654 bucks.

Now- that is just their TAXABLE income- after deductions, business expenses, tax shelters and not including revenue sources exempt from state taxation...

After paying those taxes, these poor pathetic folks only had 2million 36 thousadn dollar left on which to struggle to survive...

the POOOR BABIES!

So- Wyld- what the fuck are trying to suggest? That California has a lot of rich fucks? Yeah, I know, I live here, the place is lousy with them.

Of course, in typical Conservaturd disinformation style, you neglect the REST of the balance sheet.
SALES taxes raise $45 billion dollars.... and guess what, ALL those people earning LESS than $60,000 per year... the ones who have to spend nearly EVERY dollar they earn just to live? Yeah- THEY paid sales taxes on EVERY dollar they they spent, which was nearly every dollar they earned...
Whereas the RICH, who can live very well on far less than their full 2 million post tax dollars, they simply rolled that money over into new ventures that evades sales taxes...

Know what else? PROPERTY TAXES that year raised an additional 42 billion dollars...

Are you gonna suggest that the rich own 50% of all the housing in california? I didn't think so... and since most homeowners are NOT in the 144,000 club, that means that between sales taxes and property taxes, the vast bulk of State revenue was paid by the middle class.
Which is, in fact, the truth.

As far as rich people paying a lot in taxes ... FUCK THEM... cry me a fucking river over how folks who have 80% of the wealth in this country have to pay taxes on that wealth.